Charting Occupations: Private to Public, Economic to Political

The first recorded political occupation, a sit-down strike, occurred nearly 3,200 years ago in Ancient Egypt during the rule of Ramses III when tomb workers occupied six temples protesting the lack of food and supplies. The modern era has seen many types of occupations, such as the Paris Commune in 1871, Mohandas Ghandi’s sit-in strikes in South Africa a century ago and the Freedom Bus Rides in the early 1960s in the Deep South. The following graphic charts various occupations along continuums of political and economic motivations and to what degree the occupied space was public, private or a mix.